Archive for the ‘Catalina State Park’ Tag

Springtime On The Trail   6 comments

Springtime On The Trail — Image by kenne

“They’ll look for you in a field of roses,
having never really known you at all.
For you’ll never be found in a perfectly tendered garden,
you’re an untameable wildflower in this wild world.”

— Nikki Rowe

The Sonoran Desert Connects You To The World   2 comments

Sutherland Trail In Catalina State Park — HDR Image by kenne

“When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world.”

— John Muir

Sutherland Trail Wildflowers   2 comments

Purple Owl’s-Clover, Desert Poppies, and Western Honeybee On Sutherland Trail — Image by kenne

“I dream of a quiet man
who explains nothing and defends
nothing, but only knows
where the rarest wildflowers
are blooming, and who goes,
and finds that he is smiling
not by his own will.”

— Wendell Berry

On The Trail   1 comment

Sutherland Trail — Image by kenne

Beautiful flowers

Line the hiking trails in spring

So much to observe.

— kenne

Hiking To Romero Pools   Leave a comment

Hiking To Romero Pools in the Santa Catalina Mountains — Image by kenne

Hiking provides opportunities to be present in the moment

becoming emotionally attached to nature.

— kenne

 

A Springtime That Was Not In Desert   Leave a comment

Sutherland Trail (March 27, 2015)– Image by kenne

Springtime in the desert —

What’s not to love

when the flowers

are blooming!

The continuing drought

in the southwest

has devastated

this spring’s growth.

— kenne

Hiking To Romera Pools — Revisited   Leave a comment

Sunrise On The trail (1 of 1) Jeff & Phil blogJeff and Phil lead others to the base of the ridge — Images by kenne

The trail begins merciful,
level and wide for
our first steps.

The sun greeting us
rising above the mountains
warming the morning air.

Our path is straight
into the canyon
through winter’s brown.

Soon the trail narrows
turning left, then right
with carved rock stairs.

The pace slows as
fellow hikers snake-line
up the steep slopes.

As we near the first ridge,
the sky seems smaller,
staying alert with each step.

Hiking the lower canyon walls,
soon we reach the first saddle,
we break for the vistas.

Seeing no bighorn sheep,
only white rocks mistook
for their white rumps.

Climbing up and
around the next ridge,
water flowing from its top.

A steep drop in the trail
beckons thoughts of yet
another ridge to climb.

Reaching a thousand feet
above the trailhead before
hiking down to the pools.

Winter rains have provided
plenty of water for breathtaking
views of the pools and falls.

Spring break will bring
students’ cliff jumping into
the deeper Romero Pools.

I share a silent moment
above the pools with
only my shadow companion.

— kenne

Romero Pools (1 of 1)-25 blog shadow companionImages by kenne

CLICK HERE TO SEE ALL PHOTOS OF HIKING ROMERO POOLS TRAIL, JANUARY 2015.

 

Sutherland Trail   Leave a comment

Saguaros Near Trail-1248 blogSutherland Trail — Image by kenne

Hiking in March 
We start off cold      
     soon hikers remove layers. 
Looking down on the trail 
High behind saguaro cactus      
     some hikers now out of sight. 
Meadow below has patches 
Of green but few wildflowers, 
   some poppies begin to open. 
Nobody bothers you on the trail 
Where the mountains      
     sweep down on Catalina.

-- kenne

Hiking The Southerland Trail in Catalina State Park — Photo Essay   Leave a comment

Southernland Trail Panorama- blogHikers On Southerland Trail, March 2, 2018

 

Hiking The Southerland Trail in Catalina State Park (Click on any of the tiled images for a larger view in a slideshow format.) — Images by kenne


This trail is usually an excellent wildflower trail, not this year. The primary reason is very little rain this winter. Some recent rains will help for propagating next year’s wildflowers — no “Fields of Poppies” this year.

Catalina State Park Panorama   1 comment

Baby Jesus TrailCatalina State Park is located at the western edge of the Santa Catalina Mountains — Panorama by kenne

 

Catalina State Park Panorama   Leave a comment

Baby Jesus TrailCatalina State Park Panorama by kenne

I do not know if the desert can be loved,
but it is the desert that my treasure lies hidden.

— Paulo Coelho

Twin Saguaros   5 comments

Baby Jesus TrailTwin Saguaros — Image by kenne

Green towers

Almost nothing
interrupted the
twin towers
perfection.

My right shoulder 
aches, 

moving to compose
the desert 
symbol
of dreams.

— kenne

Springtime In Catalina State Park   Leave a comment

Southerland Trail-02 blogCatalina State Park — Image by kenne

Man is his own star, and the soul that can
Render an honest and a perfect man
Commands all light, all influence, all fate;
Nothing to him falls early, or too late.
Our acts our angels are, or good or ill,
Our fatal shadows that walk by us still.

— from The Honest Man’s Fortune by John Fletcher

Desert Balloons   5 comments

Wildflowers (1 of 1)-8 blog framedBrittlebush Blossoms Along a Trail– Image by kenne

DESERT BALLOONS

I was walking this trail
holding strings to many
helium filled balloons.

a trail runner asks;
how come you are walking
with all those balloons?

I’m a wildflower, I said;
can’t you tell,
I’m connected to them.

he looked at me
not sure what I was —
I just looked back.

— kenne

Sonoran Desert Wildflowers — Spring Fever   3 comments

Wildflowers (1 of 1) blog

Sutherland Trail (1 of 1)-4 blog

Wildflowers (1 of 1)-3 blog

Wildflowers (1 of 1)-4 blogSonoran Desert Wildflowers (April 2015) — Images by kenne

Spring Fever

Flourishing in

activity

the desert

spring

comes

alive

making

being alive

special

now that

winter is

dead

birds 

singing

wildflowers

abound —

spring fever.

— kenne